r/Anticonsumption • u/Healthy_Block3036 • 2d ago

Corporations Target struggles after end of DEI program and boycott, with foot traffic down 8 weeks in a row.

https://fortune.com/2025/04/01/target-dei-demise-boycott-foot-traffic-down-eighth-consecutive-week/?itm_source=parsely-api
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u/eiva-01 2d ago

Not every 5 acres is priced the same. You need people who actually want to buy it.

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u/MechanicalSideburns 2d ago

Um duh. Location, location, location.

Do you think Target is in the habit of buying land that is in worthless places that nobody wants? Or would they buy land in a strategic spots to get the most customers from the surrounding neighborhoods? Every Target I know is in a pretty juicy spot. Not to mention that new neighborhoods have often sprouted up around their development.

Say what you want about their cheap imported products and bankrupting small businesses…those fuckers understand real estate.

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u/eiva-01 2d ago

The key point you're glossing over is that if retail businesses become unprofitable then that will have the effect of suppressing the value of retail real estate. Real estate is not immune from the effects of a recession.

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u/MechanicalSideburns 2d ago

Well, of course no asset class is recession proof.

But it doesn’t matter. Target isn’t like us, where our take-home pay drops and we’ve got to sell off that 2nd car. They wouldn’t liquidate real estate, they’d leverage against it to generate cash and retool underperforming parts of the business model.

Shit, I’d bet that even if one of their stores closes because of vast underperformance, they probably still don’t even sell the land. They’d do like a 100 year lease to Buzzuto or whoever, who would then put up a mixed-use apartment/retail complex.

I guess my whole point was that they are in a vastly more advantageous position than most chains to weather a recesssion.

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u/eiva-01 2d ago

You need to have enough liquidity to pay your debts while you weather the recession. I'm not sure Target is well-positioned for that if their stores are hit harder than the industry average because that will eat into their liquidity pool.

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u/MechanicalSideburns 2d ago

That’s what I’m saying. Firms with massive asset pools essentially have unlimited cash, as long as banks continue to let them leverage it. That’s how Trump was able to borrow so hard against his New York properties for decades.

Companies like Target don’t really go out of business in this age of readily available global financing. They’re not like Sears, where they were essentially paying rent on every square foot.

You could put forth a possible case for their implosion, but I think it would have to include a rather catastrophic meltdown of the US economy.